My first 25th as a full-time missionary here in Thailand came at least 11 hours earlier than most of you reading this, and it felt a bit funky. My first mistake, browsing FaceBook a bit too long for my "social-taste," so i'm realizing. My second mistake, forgetting!

Forgetting the majesty, the magnificence of CREATOR GOD making HIS way into an Earth-type dressing room with the purpose of arriving in a manger wearing his not so fashionable swaddling clothes. Some say the clothes illustrate a humble beginning and relate it to Solomon recounting his humble beginnings.

Another explanation seemed to better describe what i was feeling..could it be that swaddling clothes or cloths were used to wrap the body of a person who had died.

"If this is true, the significance and message would be then that this baby, this Messiah, was born to die, something that would have been completely unexpected of the Messiah... if swaddling clothes were not ordinary baby blankets." -Anonymous

BORN TO DIE.

Ok, so maybe i wasn't exactly feeling DEATH, but a bit of brokenness, some disconnect..that thought: "is this what it's supposed to feel like?" i mean, most of my living years of celebrating Christ___ Day never felt this way:

no immediate family to embrace

no mom's amazing food

no snow or brightly lit houses

no Christmas smells or sounds

no gifts under a tree (maybe i just wanted one ;)

..

..

i seriously fought the idea of my 25th just being a day in bed with a bag of Korean BBQ chips on my left and a glass of water with some unopened M&Ms on my right and maybe a nice Christmas movie to save me from my funk!

Thankfully my fight ended with a simple reminder of why i'm here..not to just DO, but to simply BE. My MESSIAH who made a grand entrance in swaddling cloths came to SERVE and not to be SERVED. So i too made my way into my "dressing room" to put my swaddling clothes on and hopefully put to death this idea, this feeling that all i want for Christ___ is really not all i want for CHRIST! i'll let the photos below tell that story..Merry Christmas!